5"/25 caliber gun

The 5"/25 caliber gun (spoken "five-inch-twenty-five-caliber") was the standard anti-aircraft gun for United States Washington Naval Treaty cruisers. The gun was also mounted on pre-World War II battleships and aircraft carriers until replaced by the standard dual-purpose 5"/38 caliber gun. [Campbell 1985 p.137] United States naval gun terminology indicates the gun fired a projectile 5 inches (127 mm) in diameter, and the barrel was 25 calibers long. (barrel length is 5" x 25 = 125" or 3 meters) [Fairfield 1921 p.156]

The gun weighed about 2 tonnes and used fixed ammunition (case and projectile handled as a single assembled unit) with a 9.6-pound (4.4 kg) charge of nitrocellulose propellant to give a 54-pound (24 kg) projectile a velocity of 2100 feet per second (640 m/s). Ceiling was 27,400 feet (8352 meters) at the maximum elevation of 85 degrees. [Campbell 1985 p.137] The short barrel of the 5"/25 made it much easier to train against targets. These guns were manually controlled so the short barrel and light weight made it an early favorite as an anti-aircraft gun. The 5"/38 caliber gun replaced the 5"/25 as the anti-aircraft weapon of choice by the mid 1930s due to its better range, velocity against surface targets, and higher vertical ceiling.

5"/25 guns removed from pre-war battleships (especially those rebuilt after Pearl Harbor) had their barrel linings chromed. These guns then began being mounted on submarines in late 1943 for extra firepower against small boats and sampans often encountered off the coast of Japan. The Mark 17 gun in the Mark 40 submarine gun mount used semi-fixed ammunition (case and projectile handled separately) and had a range of 14500 yards (13260 meters) at the maximum elevation of 40 degrees. [Campbell 1985 p.138] The 5"/25 caliber gun was mounted on:
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Fahey 1941 p.9]
* [Friedman 1983 p.390]
* [Friedman 1983 p.390]
* [Friedman 1983 p.391]
* [Breyer 1973 p.210]
* [Breyer 1973 p.210]
* [Breyer 1973 p.214]
* [Breyer 1973 p.214]
* [Breyer 1973 p.219]
* [Breyer 1973 p.219]
* [Breyer 1973 p.219]
* [Breyer 1973 p.226]
* [Breyer 1973 p.226]
* [Breyer 1973 p.230]
* [Breyer 1973 p.230]
* [Breyer 1973 p.230]
* Balao class submarines [Campbell 1985 p.138]
* Tench class submarines [Campbell 1985 p.138]

References

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